Habs Win Biggest Game Of Their Year

Past and present members of the Philadelphia Flyers pose in this recent photo. From left to right, Dave Schultz (in white dress), Bobby Clarke, Scott Hartnell, and little Beaver Briere (injured), smile for the camera.

And now – About the game!

See what happens when the referee doesn’t call 11 straight penalties and you play some firewagon hockey?

If the Habs would’ve lost in poor fashion tonight (see Tampa Bay and Washington games), their slump would have gone from bad to Ottawa Senators bad. And that’s bad. But instead, the team came out tonight against a strong Philadelphia Flyers club and skated away with a good and tremendously important 5-2 win.

Alex Kovalev scored again for his second in two nights, young Matt D’Agostini notched his fifth, and Sergei Kostitsyn, recently in purgatory, also scored.

So it was a huge game in many ways.

And even though I’m quietly celebrating this big win, I’m also doing a slow burn about commentator Mike Milbury. It’s one thing if he doesn’t like Alex Kovalev. But it’s another to personally slander him, to say he only tries 15% of the time, that he doesn’t work hard, is selfish etc. Milbury just went on and on and finally play-by-play guy Jim Hughson stepped in and started defending the Russian, saying how much he liked his play.

I think Alex Kovalev always works hard. Maybe he hasn’t scored a lot lately but he’s consistently grabbing assists. And if you’re asissting on goals, you can’t be considered selfish, can you?

I also thinks Kovalev cares and that he carries about him a typical stoic Russian manner, that’s all.

Mike Milbury’s always been a mouthpiece. A lot of what he says I like but he shouldn’t get personal like that if he’s not in the dressing room and on the ice with the guy and doesn’t really know how Kovalev is.

Game Notes:

Buffalo on Saturday and Carolina on Sunday make the trek to Montreal to take on the new and revived powerhouse Habs. That’s the way it’s gonna be from now on – powerhouse Habs.

7 thoughts on “Habs Win Biggest Game Of Their Year”

Milbury showed his ignorance of Kovalev last night. Those things may have been true of him early in his career, but the last two years have shown us a much more mature player. I’m glad he scored again last night, so the nay-sayers can shut up. He’s been playing well, just not been lucky – lots of posts, and near misses.

I think Kovalev scored twice last night, actually.
It was weird, I’m watching the game, not sure who the colour guys are, and I say to the little woman, “gosh, there’s some real anti-Habs commentary going on tonight.” It was over the top.
Nice to know that it was Milbury, that genius of the trade (hee, Yashin), and the turtle. Granted, he was hired by the CBC, so *that* explains a lot.

I had the same thoughts on that big mouth Milbury. I could not believe what he was saying on the air about Kovalev and about the fans. He should not be commentating any game or giving his pathetic opinions on television.. no one cares about what he thinks. He should be fired!!

To me, Mike Millbury has to be one of the biggest cretins in hockey history (both as an executive and as a commentator), therefore whatever he says I just block out.
And for the theory that the Habs only step their game up when they play good teams, I ask the question:
who do you play against in the playoffs? Tampa Bay/Islanders/Thrasher/Canes or Flyers/Wings/Rangers??
I don’t care if they lose to bottom feeders, come playoff time I’m quite confident they’ll be ready to rock.